a constant stream of grace

Sunday, April 5, 2015

As soon as dawn breaks and there is enough light to see
where they are going, the women head toward Jesus’ tomb. They carry spices and
hope to anoint his body.

Salome and the two Marys (Mary Magdalene and Mary, the
mother of James) know that a heavy stone seals the tomb. They wonder who will
move it for them, but they are not the least bit deterred from their mission.
Someone will move it, or they will try themselves. Either way, they will anoint
his body right now.

It’s a gruesome task, this anointing. Jesus has been beaten
and crucified. A thorny crown has been pressed into his scalp. No one has
cleaned his body and he has been lying bloody and bruised in his tomb for a day
and a half.

Yet they hurry to the grave, anxious to do this final thing
for him.

When they arrive, they look up to find the stone already
moved away, and so they enter the tomb.

There is a young man dressed in white inside, who says, “Do
not be alarmed….He has been raised.” He further tells the women to go and find
Peter and the others and spread the word that Jesus will meet them all in
Galilee. He has gone back to the place where everything started and will meet
them there.

His saying “Do not be alarmed” doesn’t change the fact that
this is alarming news. The young man doesn’t prevent their fright and confusion
at all.

Mark tells us the women leave the tomb completely
terrified, saying nothing at all about their experience to anyone. And that’s
how the gospel ends.

Except we know that wasn’t the end at all. It was only the
beginning, just as Mark said in the very first sentence of his story. “This is the beginning of the good news…”

Saturday, April 4, 2015

The sun set on Friday, Sabbath began, and then the world
fell still. Twenty-four hours of
rest.

Jesus lays in his tomb, and his family and friends grieve
from afar. The week’s worship day has become their worst nightmare. They spend
the Sabbath waiting for it to be over. They are waiting for the sun to set and
rise again, so they might get to work.

By the light of Sunday’s sunrise, they will set out for the
tomb, anoint his body with oil and spices, and leave it forever in its final
resting place.

But for now, they wait.

There’s nothing to be said. There’s nothing to be done.

~~~~~

On the first Saturday of his ministry, Jesus got up before
sunrise, went out alone to a deserted place, and prayed. Everyone was looking
for him and no one knew where he was.

What is he doing on this Saturday?

He is lying alone in stillness of his tomb, in the most
deserted place of all. Again people are longing for him, but this time they
know where he is and cannot reach him.

Friday, April 3, 2015

On the day of Jesus’ baptism, a schism opened in the
heavens and a voice came to Jesus,
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

On the first Friday of Jesus’ ministry, he entered the
synagogue, the world of Jewish men, and cast out an unclean spirit. They said
of him, “What
is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits,
and they obey him!” He then crossed the street, entered a home, the world of
Jewish women, and lifted up a woman sick with a fever. As the Sabbath ended,
the whole city gathered at his door.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus couldn’t have been
alone if he tried. Everyone wanted him. Then he crossed every boundary and
entered every forbidden realm imaginable: sickness, religion, law, nature,
gender, age, profession, ethnicity, geography. He has healed everyone and he
has done all things well.

Now, on the last Friday of his ministry, he is tried,
convicted, whipped, and crucified.He dies, despised by everyone.

Now a new schism opens. The seventy-foot-high curtain in the
Temple, separating the outer courtyard from the Holy of Holies where the ark of
the covenant containing the stone tablets of the ten commandments is stored,
rips from high in the air all the way to the ground, never to be mended again.

As the Sabbath begins today, instead of being surrounded by
friends and people clamoring for his gifts and attention, Jesus is alone in a tomb.
But he is not finished.

He is still crossing boundaries and entering forbidden
realms. This time, he enters the heart of the empire. He enters the seat of
power that keeps every citizen in his or her place. He enters the places the
empire uses as a threat to everyone who might think of stepping out of line. He
enters intimidation, trial, shame, torture, fear, and death itself.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

The Passover is about to begin. On this night, Jesus and
his friends will eat the most important meal of the year and recount together
God’s saving acts in the history of their people. They will remember slavery in
Egypt, the ten plagues, and how God released their people from bondage. They will
remember God’s protection from the angel of death, escaping from the Egyptian
army, and God’s provision in the wilderness. They will remember that they are
God’s chosen people and that God, who acted so mightily on their behalf in the
past, can and will act again. They will remember they are blessed.

As expected, they gather together in a small room and share
a feast.

When the feast is done and everyone is full and satisfied,
Jesus reaches for a loaf of bread. Who could eat another bite? And if anyone
could, why would they eat that? He breaks the bread, saying it is his body.
“Take it.”

He takes a cup of wine, maybe even the cup poured out for
the prophet Elijah, poured in case he would return, and says, “This is my blood
of the covenant, poured out for many.”

He tells them that they will all desert him.

He has given everything. They will not return the favor.

They won’t even stay awake and pray with him. They will
give in to the after-meal tiredness and fall asleep in the garden.

Of course, they are still thinking he has come to conquer
the empire and take the Temple. When Judas arrives with thugs in the garden,
one of the disciples rises to defend Jesus. He cuts off someone’s ear as if to
say, “Finally! The revolution begins!” When he is silenced by Jesus, he doesn’t
have any idea what to do next. Without weapons, what power do any of them have?

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

After spending two days in the crowds, Jesus and his
disciples return to Bethany, a little town not far from the city.

They are staying with Simon. Most people wouldn’t stay with
Simon, or even enter his house at all. Most people, in fact, would turn away
from him and keep their distance. Simon is a leper. That doesn’t seem to bother
Jesus. He’s already crossed every social and political boundary he’s
encountered. Now he’s eating and drinking with the outcast and unclean,
threatening his own health and the health of the entire community.

As they sit down to eat, a woman comes with an alabaster
jar of pure nard, a costly ointment, and pours it on Jesus’ head.

Some insight about this anointing: “Alabaster” derives its
name from the Eygptian goddess Bast, often depicted as a cat or lion with a
human body. As such, alabaster jars often carried the images of cats carved
into their bodies. Cats were the guardians and protectors of mystery and the
Otherworld, looking with guile upon a human world that could neither see nor understand
the depth of their knowledge.

Nard was an expensive incense, burned in the Holy of Holies
in the Temple by the high priest once a year.

Furthermore, the only people anointed were kings. In Psalm
23, when the Psalmist says, “You anoint my head with oil,” he is saying, “I am
a king in your eyes.”

In other words, this unnamed woman comes, and makes Jesus
her king, high priest, Holy of Holies, and guardian of the deepest mysteries.
He is the bridge between all that is unclean and all that is pure. As usual,
just about no one else in the place understands this, and once again, they
start talking about money.

Judas Iscariot, however, does understand. He understands all too well that this is dangerous
business. He immediately seeks a way to end the revolution that could otherwise
kill them all.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Yesterday, Jesus encountered a fig tree on his way to the
Temple. Although it isn’t the season for figs, he went looking for figs anyway.
Not finding any, he cursed the tree saying, “May no one ever eat fruit from you
again.” Then, he turned everything in the Temple on its ear.

After a raucous Monday, Jesus and his disciples return to
the Temple Mount. They pass the tree Jesus curse and find it has withered to
its roots. Now the disciples take note of what he said to the tree yesterday.

In the Temple courtyard, the chief priests, scribes, and
elders of the people begin to ask Jesus all sorts of questions to trip him up.
They question his authority and his teaching, but he answers them in parables
and riddles. He quotes scripture in ways that make no sense to them.

On the side, he teaches his disciples about forgiveness. He
points out the example of a poor widow who gives to the Temple treasury from
her whole self; all she has to live on. He warns them to be wary of those with
power.

As they leave the Temple Mount, the disciples turn and
admire the buildings of Jerusalem and the Temple looming large on the horizon.

Jesus says these buildings are nothing at all, and will one
day be left in rubble. He speaks again about his coming death and the signs of
the end of things. These things are nearer than anyone realizes, yet no one
seems to notice.

Jesus speaks from the heart of the city about what it means
to be spiritual in economic, political, and social realms. Like the fig tree,
people are expected to produce fruit out of season. Specifically, they are
expected to forgive and to give everything they have for the sake of others. They
are expected to live as citizens of God’s empire, even as they navigate life in
Caesar’s empire. If they don’t, they and the whole world will be a cursed
place. No one understands what he’s saying. The Temple courtyard has been
cleared, and he has explained everything well, but that doesn’t mean people’s
minds and hearts have been cleansed.

Monday, March 30, 2015

Yesterday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem triumphant. He
ascended the Temple Mount, looked all around at the courtyard and the inner
courts, and saying nothing, left the area. What Mark doesn’t say is that he
left disgusted.

The courtyard of the Temple is a bustle of activity. The
moneychangers are there, exchanging the every day currency of the empire for
temple currency so visitors can offer their annual temple tax. There are booths
where acceptable sacrifices are sold: unblemished doves, the highest quality
grains, freshly baked loaves of bread, and first-press olive oil. Perhaps worst
of all, the Temple courtyard is a shortcut from the heart of the city to the
road that leads to the Mount of Olives and on to Jericho, giving access to the
road alongside the Jordan River leading north to Galilee and south toward
Egypt. People are dressed for their journeys, carrying supplies and provisions
of every kind through the courtyard.

The scribes and Pharisees, Temple regulars and regulators,
walk the perimeter, making sure everything is as it should be. Voices fill the
space as people haggle, question, study, advise, joke, and ask for travel
tips.

What should one find in this courtyard, if not this? It is the
center of the city!

That’s what Jesus saw yesterday. Today, he yells aloud,
tosses over the tables of those doing business, and closes the highway through
the heart of the sanctuary. He quotes the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 56:7),
reminding everyone that this place is consecrated to be a house of prayer for
all the nations. For many, this courtyard is the closest they can get to the
Holy of Holies. (The Holy of Holies is the place where the stone tablets of the
ten commandments lie in the gilded ark of the covenant and the place where
God’s pillar of fire and cloud finally rests.)

If the Temple courtyard is not a place of awe, wonder,
holiness, preparation, and prayer for everyone who ascends its steps, there is
no such place anywhere. The aura of God’s greatness and the call to reverence
for all people either exist here, or they don’t exist at all.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Zechariah 9 describes the triumphant entry of a warrior
king, who returns to Jerusalem after a thorough destruction of the nation’s
enemies. His humble entry into the city on the back of a colt, the foal of a
donkey, ushers in the age of peace.

It’s no mistake that Jesus sends his disciples to find a
colt that has never been ridden. This is a calculated move, one designed to
conjure Zechariah’s images of a yearning nation. When Jesus mounts the foal,
the people respond in kind. They know Zechariah’s story and they begin to
gather and cheer.

The crowd begins to chant the victory Psalm 118, “Blessed
is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” The people cut branches and wave
them in the air as Jesus rides along, creating a procession that heads from the
Mount of Olives toward the temple, just as the psalm describes.

But Jesus doesn’t give thanks to God in the temple or make
sacrifice as victor. He hasn’t declared war on anyone or defeated any military
enemy. He hasn’t ensured peace at all. In fact, the tension with the religious
leaders mounts.

The procession has echoed the scriptures, but this victor
has not conquered armies, nor enemies. Jesus has conquered unexpected things:
disease, hunger, fear, demon possession, and prejudice. The scriptures have had
very little to say about this.

Jesus, this strange victor, enters the temple, takes a good
look around, and then slips away in silence.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Jesus and his disciples reach Jericho, a fertile oasis at
the base of their climb toward Jerusalem. As they near the city, they hear
blind Bartimaeus cry out by the side of the road, “Jesus, Son of David, have
mercy on me!”

This is the only time in Mark’s gospel that anyone besides
our narrator has suggested Jesus might be a ruler. The Jewish people are
waiting and longing for their Messiah, who shall rise from King David’s line as
legitimate heir to the throne. The people wait and long for a king to defeat
their Roman occupiers.

Blind Bartimaeus can see. He can see Jesus is this Messiah
and calls out to him as king. The crowds begin to freak out. If any military
authorities hear this rabble, it could mean the end of them all, so they order
the blind man to hold his tongue. He begins screaming it uncontrollably, “Son
of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus calls Bartimaeus, who springs up and runs in his
direction.

“What would you like for me to do for you?”

It’s the same question Jesus asked of James and John. They
had answered by asking for honor and security. Bartimaeus answers in humility,
“My teacher, let me see again.”

Bartimaeus has already seen more than James and John. He
has already seen more than the crowd. He has already seen more than the
religious authorities and the Roman centurions.

Jesus declares that Bartimaeus has been made well by his
faith. Without so much as a finger laid upon him, his eyes are made whole.

Restored, seeing Bartimaeus follows Jesus on his way. They
are both headed to Jerusalem, to the suffering Jesus has predicted. Perhaps no
one realizes it but the two of them.

Friday, March 27, 2015

When a leper approached, Jesus laid his hand upon him and
cleansed him.

When a group of people lowered their paralyzed friend in
front of Jesus, he forgave his sins and restored the strength in his legs.

When Jairus requested that Jesus come and heal his
daughter, Jesus raised her from the dead.

When the Syropheonician woman asked Jesus to cast the
unclean spirit out of her daughter, Jesus healed her from a distance.

When the masses brought their sick friends, Jesus cast out
every demon and cured every disease.

It seems Jesus does whatever anyone asks of him.

So James and John, the fishermen from Galilee, come to him
with a request of their own. “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand
and one at your left, in your glory.” They are sure they know how everything is
going to turn out. They know Jesus does everything well, so they ask for what
they want, too. They want a place of honor and security once everything’s said
and done.

But those things are not Jesus’ to give.

The request itself infuriates the other ten disciples, and a
division opens amongst them. Jesus steps in as quickly as he can. Rifts,
divisions, and competition are common amongst the rulers of nations of the
world, but the rulers of Jesus’ empire will be known for their humility and
service. Those who wish to be first must be least of all, serving all.

Jesus heals the opening rift and tells them: The only honor available here is to die on
behalf of others.

Followers

About the author....

Laura R. Holck is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Serving the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Cross, Calgary. She is also available for preaching, retreat, and international travel leadership. For more information, email: lauraholck@gmail.com.